Chinese hacking of US media becoming a “widespread phenomenon”

Wall Street Journal: Chinese hackers hit us, too.

Computer systems operated by The Wall Street Journal have been penetrated by Chinese hackers for the apparent purpose of monitoring the publication's coverage of China, the newspaper reported Thursday.

The acknowledgement came in a short article published less than 24 hours after The New York Times reported a similar breach. According to the earlier report, the NYT network had been rooted for four months by hackers who were intent on gathering intelligence about a series of stories related to the family of China’s prime minister. The report cited unnamed sources as saying Bloomberg News was also targeted by Chinese hackers after the news organization published an article in June about the wealth accumulated by relatives of Xi Jinping. Xi has since become China's general secretary of the Communist Party and is expected to become president in March.

The NYT went on to say that media outlets have been targeted since 2008, and today's WSJ article characterized the hacking campaign as extensive.

"The infiltration at the Journal, along with reports of computer network breaches at the New York Times and other news outlets, indicate that Chinese spying on US media has become a widespread phenomenon," the WSJ said. "Chinese hackers for years have targeted major US media companies with hacking, repeatedly penetrating deep inside some newsgathering systems, according to several people familiar with the response to the cyberattacks."

The FBI has been investigating the attacks on media outlets for more than a year and considers the activity a national-security case against US interests, the paper said, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter. The WSJ hacks, which company executives said are "ongoing," aren't an attempt to gain commercial advantage or to appropriate customer data, Thursday's report said. The WSJ has overhauled its computer systems to improve security.